Girl killed in Noida, help suspect

All without getting a police verification done.

The decision came to haunt them on Friday morning, when they found the body of daughter Arushi, 14, a Class IX student of DPS-Noida, in her bedroom.

The “trusted” help missing, police suspect Banjade, who came from Nepal, slit the girl’s throat.

Prima facie, the police call it a case of possible rape and murder, though the postmortem has not found rape, officials said. The report says “excessive loss of blood” caused the teenager’s death.

Besides the likely failed rape attempt, “there is no other possible reason for the man to have killed the girl,” a police official said. Police have recovered bottles of liquor from Banjade’s room and said he was possibly drunk.

Four people have been detained for questioning.

After visiting L-32, Jalvayu Vihar, Senior Superintendent of Police A Satish Ganesh said: “He must have entered the girl’s bedroom in inebriated condition when she was asleep, killed her, and escaped.

“The murder motive has not been ascertained yet but sexual harassment cannot be denied as no valuable item (barring a cellphone) was stolen. The family came to know about the incident this morning.”

The police found Banjade’s passport and some other documents from the house but are yet to recover the murder weapon. “The girl had been attacked at four places (thrice on the head, once on neck) with the same weapon,” SP (City) Mahesh Kumar Mishra said.

Both Rajesh Talwar, a dentist, and wife Nupur are visiting doctors at Fortis Hospital, Sector-62. The police said they were asleep in their room when the incident took place. Banjade, too, had reportedly gone off to his room after dinner, the police said. The police suspect he left his room, close to the main entrance, later in the night and went to Arushi’s bedroom.

The proximity to the entrance, a police official said, would have made it easy for him to enter and flee the spot.

Four people, including Banjade’s daughter and son-in-law, have been detained for questioning — the other two, officials said, are Nepali youths working at Talwars’ clinic. A police team has been sent to Nepal to hunt for Banjade, officials said.

Meanwhile, Delhi Public School in Noida observed mourning following Arushi’s death. School authorities later declared the day off for students of Arushi’s class. “Her classmates were too shocked, like all of us, and some started crying,” a school spokesperson said. “She was a brilliant student.”

WANTED: Answers
* Postmortem report says death caused by “excessive loss of blood”; no mention of attempt to rape. What is the motive, especially as nothing has reportedly been stolen?
* The neighbours, or the family sleeping in the same house, heard no scream. Could it be a planned, well-coordinated murder, and not an act by an inebriated man as the police claim?
* The family is not forthcoming with information on the help, raising suspicion over alleged strained relationships between them